Piss Off, Ghost

[st_allionofdoom]

When the polite knock came at her door, Valkyrie was there waiting beside it to open it in short order.

"You came." She gave him a thin smile and a little cock of the head--the subject of her ire fretting about in the background, popping in and out of view. Every reverberating phrase was like chicken scratch on the inside of Valkyrie's head. It did not cut deep but it was incessant. Valkyrie rolled up the sleeves of her loose sweater and stepped to the side to allow her guest entrance to a one-ghost-woman choir of grumbling at the male presence.

"This is a friend of mine. He'll be joining us for the afternoon." Valkyrie's announcement fell on indignant, incorporeal ears but she announced it purely out of spite.

Comments

[st_allionofdoom]

'THAT was an explanation.' Valkyrie quirked an eyebrow halfway through that exposit.

"We don't count as allies?" Shrugging, Valkyrie steadied on upwards. "I suppose not. We've known each other perhaps a week." As odd as it was to start from square one with a man she'd fought, fought alongside, then was rescued out of nowhere by, she had to remind herself not to make assumptions about their relationship.

[st_ratagem]

"It wouldn't matter if we'd known each other since infancy. I've learned not to count anyone as my ally. It's more efficient." And safer, but he felt that was included in efficiency.

Loki followed her up, adding 'random hikes are a possibility' to his mental list of Valkyrie facts. "You and I, for example, are both attached to my brother. This obliges me to back you as I would him, at least some of the time. I don't assume the reverse is true at any point." After a pause to consider, he added, "Generally and historically, it isn't."

[st_allionofdoom]

"If my loyalty to His Majesty excluded attachments to all others it wouldn't be a loyalty worth having." Valkyrie tossed her head, smoothing her hair back as a wind blew from behind. Whatever shampoo she'd cleansed it with that morning leant itself to volume, if nothing else.

[st_ratagem]

"I don't doubt you'll make attachments aplenty." She was beautiful, entertaining, and an excellent warrior, after all. Most people would be endeared by at least one item on that list, and it wasn't a complete list. "I simply don't expect any attachment to me to be among them."

[st_allionofdoom]

"You shouldn't expect anything from anyone. People will disappoint there. Frequently." A phrase she once spouted bitterly had softened into something she merely acknowledged as a matter of course. The hill crest approached, and Valkyrie jogged the final few steps to the top. The sight of the woods in autumn stretching into the blue horizon made her forget her words. She cleared her throat.

"Now that I've accepted it, I feel like I'm allowed to take a chance again."

[st_ratagem]

Loki continued to walk, mostly because he wasn’t really dressed for running but slightly because hanging back gave him an excuse to watch Valkyrie move, at least until he caught up again. It had to be said, though: even a pocket-slice of Midgard was pretty. Nothing to Asgard, of course, but in this case second-place wasn’t really a loser placement.

“Oh?” ‘Frequently’ was an improvement over ‘inevitably’, expressing some hope that things wouldn’t go horribly wrong. “Did you have any particular chance in mind?”

[st_allionofdoom]

"Asgard. My duty." As Loki caught up, she acknowledged him with a nod upwards. "My way, naturally. All feet on the ground. That's all."

She could have continued on to nowhere in particular, but Valkyrie lingered. The view was refreshing to the eyes and it allowed to get a survey of the surrounding terra.

"How wrapped up you are in Asgard is something I'm still figuring out. You do things your own way." She shrugged, wearing a half-smile. She didn't trust Loki a fraction of the distance she could throw him right up until his dynamic entrance with The Statesman. It was unspoken, but her relationship with his sheer unpredictability was a love-hate one.

[st_ratagem]

"I'm honestly not sure of that, myself." Asgard was home, but it also wasn't. He missed it when he was gone, but hardly wanted anything more than escape while he was there. "I don't want Asgard annihilated, and I'll go a fair distance for my brother's sake. On the other hand, I have no place there, which puts limits on how far I want to stick my neck out for it, most of the time." Loki waved a hand. "Asgard... varies."

[st_allionofdoom]

"From moment to moment?" Valkyrie didn't know every detail of Loki's background, but she didn't have to to know that there was little point in arguing with a person's feelings.

"Much how I take you. Moment to moment."

[st_ratagem]

That from moment to moment sounded like a reference, but Loki didn't recognize it. From his future, probably, and he very briefly wondered what it was referencing.

Nothing good, probably, so he let it pass on. "That's probably the best way. I'd like to think I'm not quite that erratic, but...." He shrugged. He was, at least sometimes, exactly that erratic.

[st_allionofdoom]

"Don't worry. You are." A murder of crows flocked to the skies just out of her field of vision--disturbed by some manner of predator, likely. Thor's offer to hunt replayed in her mind. She'd have to take him up on that. Chicken was acceptable sustenance but she had her limits with it. That, and hides and animal parts made fine offerings, especially when fashioned.

"And decent company. When you so choose." Pleasantly surprising. Her blow to Loki's face was brought about by good-faith competition rather than fury. "I've not yet made a decision about your room. Show me and we'll go from there?"

[st_ratagem]

"Simple enough. Do you want to walk back or let me show off?" Teleportation within a realm was... not easy, which was why he generally projected an illusion rather than physically traveling. The Inn was small enough and familiar enough by now that teleporting was as easy as it could be.

Whether Valkyrie, who seemed to know exactly what he was more clearly than most, would accept it was the only real question.

[st_allionofdoom]

"That was a plea to show off if I've ever heard one." Valkyrie extended her hand, figuring if they could trade blows, they could bear to hold hands for a few seconds.

[st_ratagem]

“Sometimes I like having an audience other than myself.” Victims and targets, of course, didn’t count as an audience.

Loki took the offered hand and promptly teleported them both to just outside his door. His privacy wards probably wouldn’t have interferes with the spell, as Thor had proved able to pop in and out as he pleased, but there was no sense taking chances.

He did release Valkyrie’s hand after arrival, of course. Of course. Not doing so would have been more petty than he currently wanted to be, and releasing her hand meant he could use his to unlock and open the door. “Feel free to explore and judge.”

[st_allionofdoom]

"Not terrible." Immediately left Valkyrie's lips as she passed the threshold and the lack of loud, swirling colors made itself apparent. She was even given to the color scheme that aligned with her own, though the ingratiatingly fanciful touch was still there. Passing by the king bed on the ground floor (that was clearly Loki's and she wasn't tipsy enough to crack any jokes about sharing that) and ascended the blue steps to the second floor.

"Are you sure you haven't curried favor from the powers that be?" She had seen Thor's room. It was far, far more agonizing than Loki's. Two floors, three beds, a tasteful-ish aesthetic and a balcony with a landscape view of the land.

[st_ratagem]

Loki followed her into the room, noting where she went but putting no restrictions on her. There was virtually nothing personal in the room anywhere. Between not-always-banished ghosts and at least one person (Thor) who could pop in as he pleased, it was better to keep anything personal over there rather than trust to anyone’s manners.

“Moderately sure. If I have, I’ve no idea how.” And it would be a good thing to know, if he ever had to suck up to their jailers directly. “I sleep in the double more often than not, but I rotate enough that it hardly matters. You would have your choice. If you were wondering.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie leaned over the railing, peering down below at Loki's figure. Cocking her hair to one side, her hair fell in a smooth curtain over one shoulder. She couldn't dissect his thoughts just by looking, as much as she'd like to.

"I'm fine with a spot on the floor with room for my sword." A little arch of the brow. "I don't take up much space."

[st_ratagem]

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Even if she was being serious, it was a ridiculous idea, sleeping on the floor when better options were available. “I have some standards of hospitality, so pick a bed.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Seeing Loki insist upon anything so domestic was new, and she had to huff in soft laughter. If Valkyrie was inclined, she could easily find it as a cause for suspicion.

'I've gone along this far. Why start asking questions now?' "Fine." Valkyrie stepped backwards from the railing, escaping view as she fell back into a sit on the single. "I'll take the small one."

[st_ratagem]

"Fine." Of course, if she left the room getting back in would require a key, but while Loki was willing to share his space for the night, he was nowhere near sure he wanted to go the distance of a spare key.

Well, that might be what illusory duplicates were for. "Sleep well when you do, I suppose?"

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie rustled about, removing her folded armor from her back as well as her sword, placing them onto the spot beside her. The knives remained hidden on her person.

"If you bring someone in, don't mind me. I've already seen you in action." She called to the floor below, zipping down her sweater.

[st_ratagem]

After a second to recall what he'd heard, Loki laughed. Sakaar and this Grandmaster, yes. It was very slightly annoying to lack his own context on something that both Thor and Valkyrie knew, but not unduly. On the whole, a better reaction seemed to be 'continue to look forward to that experience'.

It helped somewhat that the more he heard, the more fun it sounded like he was going to have. "Not impressed, I take it? No matter. I doubt I'll be having company tonight."

[st_allionofdoom]

Setting her sweater to the side with the rest, Valkyrie stretched her bare arms up, left in a loosely hanging tank top. "I don't recall. I had a bottle in hand and I stumbled in one of the orgies. Didn't stick around long." It had happened on more than one occasion. The Grandmaster never noticed, though Topaz was another story. The woman accusing Valkyrie doing it on purpose still made her want to crawl out of her own skin.

"I'm sure you were fine." May as well be polite to the host.

[st_ratagem]

Loki rolled his eyes, though she couldn't see it, then sent an illusion up to speak more personally. At least until it seemed like a good idea to climb the stairs himself. In the meantime, his physical body settled to read. "I imagine I will be. In my experience, that kind of deal only holds as long as one side is satisfied with what the other offers."

[st_allionofdoom]

All things told, it should have been a damn sight more awkward to discuss The Prince’s bedpost notches, but neither of them were the type to get shy about much of anything. Valkyrie regarded the double with an agreeable shrug and laid back.

“So. Two little favors or a medium favor.” She nodded for him to take a seat, not minding more of the company. “Don’t be shy.”